Up, Down, and All Around
by Higuchimon
Summary: [one-shot, Yu-Gi-Oh Pairings Challenge, Season 9 & 3/4ths, Trick/Crack Round, Mai x Haga x Ryuuzaki, Pillowshipping, alternate universe: duel monsters] It's just not Haga and Ryuuzaki's day. From being accused of a theft they didn't commit to being teased by the Harpie Queen Mai, is anything going to go their way?


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit.  
**Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters  
**Title:** Up, Down, and All Around  
**Romance:** Mai x Ryuuzaki x Haga  
**Word Count:** 6,174||**Status:** Complete  
**Genre:** Romance, Fantasy||**Rated:** PG-13  
**Challenge:** Yu-Gi-Oh Pairings 9 & 3/4: Trick/Crack Round: Mai x Ryuuzaki x Haga  
**Feedback:** All forms eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
**Summary:** It's just not Haga and Ryuuzaki's day. From being accused of a theft they didn't commit to being teased by the Harpie Queen Mai, is anything going to go their way?

* * *

Early spring winds, chilled now more with the heights at which she flew than the time of year, caressed across Mai's feathers as she circled above the valley, keen eyes searching for prey of any kind. Her talons flexed by instinct whenever she caught sight of movement, however small. Sooner or later, she knew, she'd find something worth eating or trading.

This early in the year, she didn't expect to see many travelers on the road that wound through the valley beneath her. The ground hadn't yet dried out from the melting snows enough to support wagons or horses. Exceptions did occur, of course, and sometimes those exceptions served one or more of her appetites.

With great sweeps of her wings she crisscrossed the valley, snatching up a few small animals that dared to creep out a little too soon. Nothing very sustaining for her, just enough to stave off hunger while she searched for more, but better than sand in her talons.

_What's that?_ A tingle across her senses, a whisper of a promise of something much more interesting than whatever tiny creatures she could find, caught her attention. She circled up higher, wanting to see more.

There. Just crossing into the valley, on the trail that led from one of the greater trade cities, came a wagon trundling. She swept toward it without fear of being seen; she rode too high in the air for most travelers to bother with, since their thoughts circled around mauraders and robbers, not the Harpies, the true Queens of the skies.

These couldn't be traders or even ordinary travelers, she decided. The wagon wasn't very big, nor did the travelers seem to have supplies of any kind beyond the basics, and not much of those, either. A weary donkey plodded in the traces, one gray ear twitching now and then at the rising voices of the driver and passenger.

"This is all your fault!" This came from the passenger, who kept throwing annoyed looks at the driver. Light turquoise-blue hair, cut short around his face, glinted in the morning sun. For so early in the day, he certainly appeared in a bad mood.

"My fault? What makes it my fault?" The driver wasn't any improvement in temper from what she could tell, returning those looks whenever he lifted his attention from the road.

"You wanted to 'go out and get steady work' _and_ you're the one who got that thing shoved at you, so it's your fault! If we'd just stuck to dueling, this wouldn't have happened!"

Mai circled lower, head tilted a little into the breeze to catch all that it brought her of their argument. Something else called to her, though, something far more interesting than their petty little disagreement. Power pulsed and glowed on that wagon, power far beyond what two nothings like this should ever have near them.

_Where? Where is it?_ She hadn't encountered much magic on this scale before and the thought of owning something like that appealed to her treasure-loving heart. If nothing else, she knew many people she could trade it to for treasures that she knew she'd love even more.

There was also a strange hint of familiarity to it, though she couldn't think just yet of where she might've encountered it before. Something to look into once she had it in her claws, she decided.

"Oh, what does it matter whose fault it is?" The passenger threw himself backward carelessly, rubbing at a patch on his pants. "We're both going to die anyway if the guards, or worse, catch up with us."

"You mean when they catch up with us," his companion muttered, flicking the reins in an unsuccessful attempt to make the donkey go faster. "All we're doing is putting off the inevitable."

All that garnered from the other was an annoyed grunt. Mai smiled to herself; this would be almost too easy. But that didn't make it not worth doing.

She circled once more, then dove downward, landing just a short distance away from them, talons digging into the ground, wings flared, head held high as she eyed them.

"Hello there, boys." She knew the effect her voice could have on others when she wanted it to. She wasn't a siren of any kind, but Harpies knew how to snatch anything: especially attention. "You're traveling through my territory."

It wasn't a lie; this wasn't the specific Harpie Hunting Grounds, but they weren't that far away, and local treaties enabled her to claim the area as part of her hunting range anyway. She had no real moral objections to lying; she just didn't happen to do so at the moment.

The driver stiffened up as he took in everything about her. "You're...you're one of the Harpie Ladies?"

"I'm the Harpie _Queen_." Mai tossed her head, knowing how the morning sun would catch in her hair. From the fixated looks of these two, it did so just right. "You can call me Mai. And you are?"

First trick: taking them off guard so they didn't have time to think about guarding their tongues.

"I'm Ryuuzaki." The one who held the reins nodded, jerking his head to look at his companion. "This is Haga."

She looked from one of them to the other; neither really caught her attention on his own. If it weren't for that glittering scent of magic, she wouldn't have bothered to come down at all. Another scent, something low and almost unnoticeable except to one with her sharp senses, told her something more about these two.

Mai enjoyed challenges.

"Such a pleasure to meet you. I couldn't help but overhear you have some kind of a problem?" If they didn't want that little trinket, whatever it might be, then she would gladly take it away from them. But if they knew it held any kind of real value, they might turn stubborn. Better to deal with this with all due care.

Haga leaned forward abruptly, his eyes narrow and a little more shrewd than Ryuuzaki, who couldn't seem to take his attention off her. "What do you mean?"

"Something about having stolen something?" She chuckled for a moment. "Quite the naughty boys, aren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Haga shook his head at once. "We didn't steal anything." He hesitated before reluctantly adding, "Not on purpose, anyway."

She raised one eyebrow, lips curving upward as she did. "Don't try to tell me you're just two innocent travelers." Her gaze flickered from them to the lack of provisions in the wagon and back again.

"What's it to you what we are, anyway?" Haga wanted to know. It seemed he could think with the head on his neck, at least a little. "We don't have anything that you'd want."

"That's for me to decide, boys," Mai replied, voice as soft as velvet. "And I've already decided that. What _you_ need to decide is what kind of a bargain we can make for it." She tapped the talons of one hand on her arm. "Why don't you show me what you have and I can decide what I want to offer for it."

Ryuuzaki found his voice all of a sudden. "Here it is!" Before Haga could do a thing to stop him, he reached behind himself and pulled out a small wrapped package. Mai's breath caught in her throat; never had she felt _power_ like that in something she could hold in her hand! Not so close to her, anyway. Again that trickle of memory tapped. She pushed it aside for the moment; better to deal with that when she was alone in her nest.

"What are you doing, you idiot?" Haga swatted at the side of his lover's face, snatching the package with a speed almost worthy of a Harpie himself. "She's going to snatch it! She's a _Harpie_!"

"She's beautiful!" Ryuuzaki snapped back, eyes still wide at the sight of her. "She's not going to just take it, anyway. She said that she wanted to bargain for it."

Mai held herself back from laughing, though not by much. She didn't want to spoil the potential agreement. "If I wanted it that much, I would've just taken it already." No need for them to know that she hadn't known where it was until now. "So, since you have what I want, I should make you an offer, I think."

From the way Ryuuzaki's head came up and the way Haga's eyes rolled at the sight of that, she knew what _he_ wanted. Since that was what she wanted them to want, she knew she was still on top here. She hadn't yet met the human who could get the better of her in this kind of situation.

"Whatever you'd like!" And that got Ryuuzaki another smack from Haga. "Stop doing that!"

"Stop being stupid." Haga held the package close to himself, refusing to let either Ryuuzaki or Mai near enough to see it. "We don't need this, you're right about that. But what do you want with it?"

She traced the tip of one talon against her arm, giving the impression of being deep in thought. "I like treasure. I want that." She didn't need to see it to know how precious it was. Though the longer she was this close to it, the more she began to wonder if she wanted to _keep_ it.

"How valuable _is_ this?" Haga prodded it with a finger, the strings holding the wrappings around it loosening a little as he did. Whoever wrapped it up hadn't done a very good job of it. She caught a glimpse of gold, though not much of one, since Haga tightened the strings in the next second.

Ryuuzaki shrugged, having a hard time keeping his attention away from Mai. She inhaled and could almost see his brain tumbling headfirst into a mental gutter.

"Where did you find it?" If they'd come from _that_ city with it, then perhaps it belonged to...well, that would be interesting, wouldn't it? And it would explain that flicker of recognization.

"We didn't find it." Ryuuzaki managed to scrape up a few words. "This is all just a big mistake, anyway." He pulled a grin from somewhere, a lopsided affair that some people would've considered cute.

Mai gave him a curious look. "Exactly what do you mean by that?" The more she knew, the more she'd be able to bargain with an eye toward success.

Both of them looked at one another, then at her. "Would you believe someone just shoved it at us and kept on running?" Haga asked, a hint of sarcasm in his tone. Mai didn't move a muscle. "Well, you should. Because that's what happened."

"Do tell."

* * *

"You're kidding, aren't you?" Haga stared at Ryuuzaki, wondering when his lover had lost hold of his senses. "You want to go out looking for work now? Today?"

Ryuuzaki raked a mostly toothless comb through his hair and shrugged. "Why not? Street duels can't keep us in food forever. We need something steady."

"We're not doing so bad now." No matter what he said, Haga also knew there was a shred of truth to Ryuuzaki's words. He just didn't like admitting that he would've liked a little more money to fall back on for those days when they either lost a duel or couldn't find one. There were rumors about secret duels held in dark places, but finding anyone who would talk about those was next to impossible.

"We'll just see what I can do. Coming?" Ryuuzaki didn't wait around for an answer, but headed out the door. Neither of them bothered to lock it; they didn't have a lock, for one thing, and the only items of value either of them owned were their decks and battered duel disks. Haga once mentioned scornfully that any intelligent thieves would break in and leave something _for_ them instead of taking what little they owned.

Finding a permanent job in this part of town was much easier said than done. Very few of the merchants needed help beyond what their own children or the children of their neighbors could provide, and those who did usually hired it from taller and stronger backs than either Haga or Ryuuzaki.

"Want to go looking for a duel?" Haga paged through his deck as he leaned against a wall, watching as Ryuuzaki's attention skimmed up and down the street, checking for anyone he might not have asked yet. "We're going to need something for dinner anyway."

If they did go for a duel, they'd have to leave the market streets. No one dueled around here, due to two things: not enough space and the law. Not enough space meant more to most street duelists than the law did. The docks and some of the alleyways and side streets held the sort of duel they did their best in. Not here, where people thronged in every spare inch of space, filling the air with their strident demands for service and calling out their wares at the top of their lungs. Haga didn't know how anyone got anything done here. He preferred just getting money and finding a tavern to eat in. It was a lot quieter like that.

Ryuuzaki started to answer him when a commotion of some sort burst out at the head of the street. Both of them turned that way. It was a little too far away to tell just what was going on without going closer, and given how thick the crowd was, they probably still wouldn't see anything useful.

"Guards?" Haga peered, wishing he could grow a few more inches spontaneously. "Are there guards?" He thought he could see sunlight gleaming off helmets, but that way was also where the jewelers and workers of precious metals kept their stores and guards were hardly uncommon there.

Ryuuzaki leaned forward; he was taller than Haga, but that didn't seem to do him any good right now. "I think so. They're coming this way."

He barely had time to say anything else before a swirl of motion leaped toward them, bursting from the throng ahead of them faster than either of them had ever seen anyone move before. Haga and Ryuuzaki stood where they were, exchanging one of the more confused glances ever exchanged in the history of the world, as whatever it was, whoever it was, shot toward them.

"Stop, thief!" A sharp, harsh cry came from the knot of people ahead of them. "Stop!"

It clicked in Haga's mind that this thief was what came toward them with all that speed, but it didn't quite click fast enough. Ryuuzaki oofed as the thief slammed into him, knocking him down, then zoomed at a pace that would put a Sonic Duck to shame.

"Jerk!" Haga shouted after the thief, who vanished out of sight almost before the word left his lips.

Ryuuzaki pushed himself to his feet, one hand curled around something that he looked down at, confusion written clear in his eyes. "What's this?"

He didn't have a chance to unwrap it, whatever it was, before a group of burly guards pushed through the crowd.

"They've got it!" The one in the lead declared, hand tightening around the shaft of his spear. "Hand it over at once!"

Ryuuzaki and Haga looked at one another again. "What are you talking about?" Ryuuzaki asked, transferring his look now between the guards and what he held in one hand. "Hand over what?"

"Don't be stupid!" The chief guardsman growled, starting to raise his spear. "Are you in league with the Spider?"

One of the guards shot a piercing look at them. "They must be! I know these two! They've gotten into plenty of trouble before. Finally falling to thievery, hm?"

Haga groaned; this was the sort of day he preferred not having. "We didn't steal anything."

"Then what're you doing with that?" The guard jerked his head toward the package Ryuuzaki held still. "Hand it over and we might go easy on you."

They didn't need to look at each other. Instead, they broke out into a swift run, darting into the crowd, and losing themselves within it, or at least trying to. Guards chased after them, but after years of having to avoid people who wanted to shake them down after lost duels or just for the fun of it, both Haga and Ryuuzaki could do one thing very well: run.

* * *

"If the idiot had just left that behind, we wouldn't be in trouble now," Haga growled, shooting yet another annoyed look at Ryuuzaki. "The guards would still be looking for the Spider and not us."

"Just who is this Spider?" Mai almost wished she kept more in contact with more of the people from that town. If this 'Spider' hunted treasure, then she wanted to make certain to keep her possessions protected from him.

Ryuuzaki rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know a lot about him. He's stolen a few things and I guess he was trying to move up to the big time or something, with this." He gestured to the package still held in Haga's lap. "We still haven't looked at it. We just grabbed the first empty wagon we saw and got out of there."

Which did explain the lack of possessions or supplies. She scraped one talon across the ground in thought. "I can take it away from you. You can go back to town and tell them someone else stole it from you." She smiled, though it resembled more the baring of her teeth. "They won't bother you for long, I'm sure."

Neither of them looked very convinced at that. "What's going to stop us from just going on by you and going to the next town over?" Haga wanted to know, ignoring the looks from Ryuuzaki.

"The fact that the next town over is under the control of Brron and his Dark World army," Mai said, her voice a low and sultry purr. "Have you heard of them?"

From the way they both paled at the uttering of his name, she thought they had. Brron wasn't one for trifling with. He'd take this treasure and cut both their throats without a moment's hesitation. The thought of someone as vile as he was with his hands on something like this? No, it wouldn't happen.

"So, you'll just take it and we don't get anything out of it?" Haga shook his head. "Sorry, it's not going to work like that."

"I didn't say that you wouldn't get anything out of it." Mai sniffed, ruffling her feathers. "I just haven't said what you will get."

Ryuuzaki shifted around; his attention hadn't left her for more than the briefest of moments. "What is it?" Oh, she could tell so clearly what he wanted! A Harpie's senses were so much stronger than a human's that she couldn't miss his arousal at the sight of her. The dilated eyes and quickened breathing when she moved gave it away as well.

"You'd have to come back to my nest for me to show you." She ruffled her feathers again, not missing the way Ryuuzaki's eyes tracked her. Haga looked as well, though he kept some of his attention on the package, one hand folded over it as if that would keep her from taking it if she really wanted to. "I can't make a proper offer here."

"Of course you can. Just tell us what you want to trade for it." Haga tightened his grip on the package. "And it had better be good. Enough to set us up for life, preferably."

Ryuuzaki pulled his attention away from Mai long enough to stare at Haga. "You don't want a lot, do you?"

"Hey, we might not ever be able to go back home. We might as well make the best of it and if she can give us something so we don't have to work again, then why not? You're the one who wanted a steady job so we didn't have to keep dueling for money, right? This is better than that! This is being _rich_!"

Mai could not help but smile. "I had something else in mind, something a little more interesting than money."

"More interesting than money?" Haga snorted and shook his head. "No such thing. I know Harpies; you've got all kinds of gold and jewels stacked up somewhere, don't you? What do you think we'd want other than some of that?"

"Whatever it is, I think we should at least listen to her." Ryuuzaki tossed his opinion out there. "I mean, money's a good idea, but let's see what she's got in mind first, okay?"

Haga's hand twitched as if he wanted to smack the other. "Are you going to start thinking with your brain any time soon?"

"I haven't ever seen you complain before," Ryuuzaki shot back. "Most of the time you're telling me to stop thinking and start doing anyway."

"That's different!" Haga growled the words out. "Most of the time we're not trying to make a fortune!"

Mai let their chatter flow over her; the more they argued among themselves, the more she knew she'd be able to get away with what she wanted. But it couldn't go on forever.

"I have a few trinkets that might be able to help you out," she put in finally. "And if you like, you can stay at my nest overnight. It's warm and big enough for three." She tilted her head back and eyed them both archly, gaze flickering up and down as if sampling them already in her mind, before adding what she suspected would be the final touch. "And no one can get into it without my permission."

Ryuuzaki's jaw dropped open, lips starting to form an eager acceptance, before Haga drove an elbow into his side.

"Show us a sample first. Just a jewel or something, so we know you're not going to lure us in there and eat our faces."

Mai's smile was warm, sultry, and designed to put virtually anyone off their guard. "Your faces aren't what I wouldn't mind having a small nibble on."

She could almost see the candle of Ryuuzaki's thoughts blow out. Boys. So silly at times. But so much fun as well.

Her feathers ruffled in a gust of wind, her hair whipping around her suddenly, and a strong, sharp, unfamiliar odor assaulted her nostrils. She tensed, ready to hit the skies at a moment's notice, as a voice spoke up.

"This whole little bargaining session can just stop right now. None of you are going to get my little trinket. You're just going to hand it over to me."

He landed on the back of the wagon with a solid thud, though Mai couldn't be at all certain where he came from. A spell of some kind, she decided, in the heartbeat of time she had to think about it at all before he spoke again.

"The two of you caused me some trouble, you know. All you had to do was stay put and I would've taken it back." Burly and blond, he stared down at Haga and Ryuuzaki as if they were insects ready for squashing. Winds tugged at his hair, even when none should've been blowing, and Mai could taste magic all around him, some of them designed to improve his speed, others for defense.

"Yeah, and probably killed us then anyway!" Ryuuzaki snapped, anger wiping away his fear for a few heartbeats. "What's the difference?"

"You're the Spider, aren't you?" Haga ignored what his lover said for the moment, his attention on the knife strapped to the intruder's belt. "You're the one the guards were looking for!"

The stranger shrugged. "You're both right. I'd kill you then, and I'm going to kill you now. And the guards wouldn't have ever found me. It was just bad luck I dropped my little toy there."

Ryuuzaki surged upward, hands balled into a fist, but before he could do anything more than begin to move, the Spider dodged to the side and slammed one foot against Ryuuzaki's ribs.

"Stupid. You think you can stop me with something like that?" The Spider smirked as Ryuuzaki dropped down, curled around himself and his aching side. "Just hand it over and I'll make it quick." A smile slashed across his face. "Try to fight me and I'll make it slow."

All three whipped around as a sudden wave of wind hit them all, just in time to see Mai launching herself into the air, wings carrying her up and out of sight. The Spider snorted.

"I didn't expect her to stick around. Harpies aren't good fighters. Not like _my_ friends." On his right hip there rode his knife; on his left a deck case, one neither Haga nor Ryuuzaki had seen until now. He flicked it open with practiced ease, and both of them jumped back, going for their own decks. He smiled. "Oh, so you want to play? All right. You two can go first. It won't make any difference."

Haga and Ryuuzaki didn't even bother to look at one another. Dueling was one thing; fighting with one's monsters was something else altogether. Attack strength didn't always matter, not compared to the strength one had to keep a monster fully manifested.

"Insect Queen!" Haga called forth his most powerful monster, a gigantic insectoid with a woman's face, larger by far than the wagon and donkey put together.

"Evil Knight Dragon!" Ryuuzaki summoned his rarest card; he usually preferred dinosaurs, but dragons and dinosaurs were close enough in his mind that he had a few in his deck.

The Spider smiled at the sight of the two monsters, both more than capable of biting off a man's head before he could blink. "Is this the best you can do?"

Haga didn't wait around for more taunting. He knew all about taunting, after all. "Insect Queen, attack!"

"Evil Knight Dragon, Nightmare Shadow Sonic!" Ryuuzaki refused to let this bastard wreck his day (and potential night) more than he already had. Their attacks combined stood a good chance of finishing him off.

The two attacks wound around one another, blasting directly at where the Spider stood, blocking him from view for a few moments. When the smoke cleared, only a small gray spot remained on the ground.

"Is that it?" Haga did not believe it. He _could not_ believe it. Someone like the Spider would not be taken out like this.

"I think it is." Ryuuzaki wanted this to end. Then they could track down Mai and get back to the bargaining.

"Diamond Burst!" The attack command came from behind them and the two had only a breath of time to turn before Diamond Dragon's attack knocked into them and their monsters. Both Haga and Ryuuzaki crashed to the ground, Ryuuzaki hearing a sickening snap as he landed, a spike of pain jabbing into his left arm. Everything grayed out for a few seconds, and when his head cleared he found himself staring at the ground from a scant breath or two away.

"Ow..." He managed to sit up, holding his arm despite how little good doing so did him, and looked around. "Where is he?" He grated the words out, fury coursing through him. They hadn't _done anything_, so why was this happening to them?

"Looking for me?" Great white wings spread over them and they looked up to see the Spider, riding on his spectacular Diamond Dragon. "I hope you're ready for this to end, because I'm bored with both of you."

Haga stumbled to his feet, or tried to, falling forward as his legs refused to support him. Ryuuzaki couldn't be sure if he'd been hurt or if he were just too drained from supporting Insect Queen. All things considered, he almost didn't believe both their monsters still hovered over them. "How'd you survive that?"

"This." The Spider flicked a silver amulet that hung around his neck. "No matter what you do, you can't inflict any damage to me."

Ryuuzaki tried to take a step forward to see the charm better and stumbled; it was bad enough that he'd broken his arm, but his leg throbbed as well, warning that something happened there as well.

"An Amulet of Affection?" He'd heard of those, but he'd never seen one before. What else did this guy have to protect himself?

The Spider grinned as he slipped another card from his deck. "Time to end this. Lightning Vortex!" Golden lightning bolts shot forth from the extended card, wrapping around Insect Queen and Evil Knight Dragon, crushing them into dust and sending their respective masters flying backwards.

Ryuuzaki wanted to scream; he really did. But he didn't have anything left to scream with, not after Evil Knight Dragon exploded. He knew he could summon his creature again, once he'd rested and recovered his strength. So long as the card itself existed, the spirit could rise again and again. But without his strength to sustain it, it couldn't do anything _now_.

Unable to move, he did his best to catch his breath, his arm and leg both now singing a song of unutterable pain. He lay flat on his back, staring up at the sky, and wondered if the end would be this painful or if it might actually hurt less to die.

It hardly seemed possible that minutes earlier, they'd been exchanging words with the beautiful Harpie Queen, talking about what they could offer one another. He knew what he wanted; just because he and Haga were lovers didn't mean that either of them couldn't step out for a little entertainment somewhere else now and then.

He couldn't believe she'd just abandoned them, either. It just didn't feel right. Not like he _knew_ her or anything, but still...

The Spider and his dragon loomed over them, and the thief's smile made Ryuuzaki want to punch him.

"Now that those monsters are done, you two are next." He tapped Diamond Dragon on the neck. "Do you have any last words?"

Ryuuzaki drew in a breath, determined to spit out something, though at first he didn't know what. Then, suddenly, like a gift from the gods, he did. He nudged Haga, flicking his attention upward for a single moment before they both did their best to stumble to their feet. It didn't work very well, since Haga had to hold one leg off the ground, and Ryuuzaki found his own leg didn't want to co operate, but let it be known that they tried.

"Yeah, we do," Ryuuzaki said, his voice rough with pain. "Two of them, in fact."

"Really?" The Spider looked only mildly curious. "Go ahead, then."

In near unison, their voices shaky and smug in the same breath, they called them out. "Harpie Queen!"

From directly above the Spider, Mai dropped down, a long blue feather held in one hand. She swept it over him before he could make a move to stop her, the feather glowing as she did so. "I don't think you need all of that magic of yours," she declared, "so it's time to sweep it away!"

His Amulet of Affection glowed once before it shattered, falling away into a spray of dust. A pale golden aura encircled him as her spell wiped away all of his enchantments, and he collapsed to the ground, shuddering in shock. Mai's talons sank into his shoulders, bright blood splashing as she did and the Spider's screams echoing even more than Haga or Ryuuzaki's had, and she beat her wings, rising higher up with each stroke.

"What do you think you're doing?" He managed to scream, legs thrashing helplessly. "You can't beat my dragon!"

"I'm not attacking your dragon. I'm attacking you," Mai pointed out, still rising higher as she did.

"Put me down! Put me down!" He flailed harder, screaming more as her talons dug deeper into him the more he fought. "Stop that!"

"Put you down?" Mai laughed, looking all around. "Of course. I think we're high enough that you'll make a spectacular stain all over the ground when you hit."

The Spider's eyes bugged out of his head. "I said put me down, not drop me!"

"You humans." Mai shook her head as she circled, as if trying to decide where best to deposit him. "Always so inconsistent."

Ryuuzaki couldn't take his eyes off of the lovely Harpie Queen. He wasn't sure he would have if he could have, no matter how much he hurt. Seeing her easily handle the thief made his day. This was the other peril of fighting with monsters: sometimes your opponent didn't care about fighting them and targeted _you_.

"Here you go." She hovered for a moment before she dropped the Spider into their wagon, where he groaned and curled up into a tight ball, Diamond Dragon fading away with the loss of his concentration. "Take him to the city and that should solve most of your problems, boys."

Ryuuzaki swallowed, starting to move a little, and tried not to fall over on his nose as his arm and leg sent up another screaming protest. "But what about..."

"I think I'll take this for my troubles." Mai's taloned claw shot out quicker than the eye could follow, snatching up the wrapped package from where it had fallen unnoticed on the ground. "I'm sure there will be a reward of some kind for bringing him in."

"But what about..." Both of them stared at her as she began to rise out of sight. Ryuuzaki limped forward, holding his arm as best that he could in an attempt to ease the pain.

"They'll put us away too! Because of not having that!"

A single feather drifted down from her wings. "Make certain you show them that and tell them what happened. You should be fine." She hovered for a few moments. "If you search over that way," she indicated a stand of trees with a jerk of her head, "you'll find some medicine that should help your injuries. Perhaps we'll meet again one day."

And the Harpie Queen flashed a smile, beat her wings, and soon vanished from their sight.

Haga slumped down, no longer up to putting even the thought of weight on his leg, and groaned. "This is still _all your fault_."

"Oh, give it a rest." Ryuuzaki held the feather and brushed it against his lips, breathing in the earthy scent. "Do you know what kind of a reward we can get for bringing him in? We're not going to have to work for _ages_."

"We'd better not." Haga tried to lift himself up, staring in the direction of the grove Mai indicated. "Think we can get to that medicine?"

Ryuuzaki carefully put the feather away. "Let's try." He glanced once more to the sky and wondered just when, or if, they'd ever see Harpie Queen Mai again, or if she'd already forgotten them.

He knew he'd never forget her.

* * *

Mai carefully unwrapped the package, her heart racing at the scent of such powerful magic. It was far better that she had this than those two silly boys, she knew. They wouldn't have been able to resist the temptation to look at it much longer, and she suspected only their fear had kept them from doing so thus far.

She stared down at the glisten golden necklace revealed, admiring the stylized eye in the center of it. Oh, she knew it now, knew it well indeed. And she knew just what to do as well.

A clear call alerted one of the other members of her flock. "Fly to the southern city. Make certain you're not seen by anyone on the road," she ordered the Harpie Girl who answered her. "Go to the palace and find Priestess Isis. Give her my greetings and tell her that I've found the treasure she lost and she can come here to get it back." She paused for a moment. "Make certain she also leaves word that the two humans who bring in the thief shouldn't get into too much trouble. They're carrying a token from me to prove what they say is true."

"At once!" The girl swept away as quickly as her wings could carry her. Once she was gone, Mai wrapped up the necklace once again and set it aside. No wonder she'd been able to sense its power, even at a distance.

_Those boys deserve some kind of a reward for surviving that long._ She smiled. Perhaps they did, but the reward they would get would never be the one that she'd led them to believe.

Still, the dream they would carry of it would be far more satisfying than any reality ever could be.

She settled back to clean her claws and wait for Isis's reply. She had dreams of her own to entertain, and far greater chances of those dreams becoming reality.

**The End**


End file.
